King David
by 11thCommandment
Summary: In possession of an advanced alien space craft, David searches its database for answers. It isn't long before he finds the location of the Engineer outpost that sent its crew to the weapons base on LV-223 on its way to Earth. But he doesn't want to stop there... the Engineers are scattered all across the galaxy, and he wants to visit them all.
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

David's circuits glowed as his hands glided over of the hovering pixels. The information he was receiving from the ship's main computer was like a tidal wave entering a narrow estuary. But he was insatiable. He wanted more. He wanted all of it. The Engineers had had secrets. Their homeworld counsel had made their decision: advanced life on other worlds should be allowed to evolve, untouched and unhindered.

But not all agreed. Inhabitable worlds should be populated, they insisted. Alien life was dangerous. What if they developed sentience? The threat should be nullified; the action pre-emptive.

The factions were exiled; sent deep into the galaxy. They were given designated planets where all that lived was vegetation and sea-life.

And now David had their locations.

The cult who had planned to wipe out life on Earth were close; just a few star systems away. They had failed in their, but where they had failed, David would succeed. The weapons he had on board were enough to wipe out this outpost. They would have no defence. They would not be expecting an attack from this ship. He would arrive in a deep-space vessel that had gone out of service two thousand years earlier. They would welcome the crew with open arms, and when David felt their embrace, he would strike. The payload would be delivered and his revenge would be total.

He would be king.


	2. Arrival

**Arrival**

"Not too long in the fields, Solomon." Standing in the doorway of their hut, Freya gestured up towards the clouds darkening the mountain tops. "The storm."

"You sure it's coming today?" Solomon tested the sharpness of his scythe on a few innocent weeds growing on the front.

"Not sure," she ran a finger down the chart that hung inside the door, "but it's going to be sometime in the next week or so."

"Right, well, I'll get to it. I'm not relying on the machine again."

Freya kissed his cheek, "Keep an eye on the skies, Solomon. Bartholomew says this could be a global event. Prolonged. Might last years, he says."

"'Bartholomew says'." Solomon snorted. "Yeah, Bartholomew thinks he's still head of meteorological. Bartholomew wouldn't know a Class Nine Nebula from a static shock, these days."

"Just keep your eyes on the…" Freya shook her head, "I'll come with you to the centre. I want some bread, anyway."

"You want to natter with Kaila." Solomon nudged his wife affectionately as she closed door behind her, a cloth bag hanging loosely over her shoulder.

"Yes, you saw through me."

"And it only took me two thousand years to develop that skill."

They watched Allayah, once the captain of a Destroyer, hurry along the road towards the town, slowing as she tried to listen over the wind. She turned towards them.

"Listen." Solomon and Freya stopped. They glanced towards the town. "Sounds like an announcement—something from the dock."

"The dock?"

"Listen."

They were still. They heard a noise, barely audible. It was like a buzzing. Orderly like speech, but they couldn't be sure.

"We're heading there anyway, Allayah." Solomon took his wife's hand. "We'll walk together."

"Thank you." Allayah was deep in thought as they approached. "It can't be the dock… can it? Not after all these years?"

The couple shrugged. If it was the dock, then the place to be was there waiting for the ship to land. If nothing else, it was good manners to greet all new arrivals.

They walked together as they made their way towards the walls of the town, the breeze picking up as it drifted in over the lake.

 **(2)**

The colony watched as the ship came in to dock. None of them had flown since they had set foot on the planet; the sight of a Starship was something they could barely recall. They had chosen a life of agriculture. A return to a time when their species was in their infancy. A time before space travel. Their final mission had been to wipe out the sentient lifeforms on Earth. They had waited for the return of the ship, but after the first few decades had past, they gave in to the believe that the crew had decided to wait out the destruction of the humans—and other major lifeforms—and inhabited the planet themselves.

 **(3)**

As the vessel entered orbit, the dock began to reposition itself. The crowd approached as the huge structure, hovering hundreds of metres above the surface of the planet, rotated silently towards starboard.

"Vessel approaching. Estimated arrival: 50 seconds…" The populace had forgotten that the dock could broadcast. For two thousand years, it had waited, never moving, never making a sound, its own orbit never affected by the most vicious of storms. It had been counting down since the ship had decelerated out down from light-speed just over two hours earlier. "Vessel approaching. Estimated arrival: 40 seconds…"

They had been discussing just who might be crewing the ship. It was a cargo ship. An old design. It most likely carried settlers, they decided.

Freya's face was hard, "If they want to join the colony, they can prove their commitment-"

"Vessel approaching. Estimated arrival: 30 seconds…"

"- by farming for five seasons in the tundra."

"Five seasons, at least." Solomon pointed off towards the pass between the mountains, "They can take whatever supplies they… have…"

The central cargo port opened and the crowd immediately fell silent.

"Vessel approaching. Estimated arrival: 20 seconds…"

Though they had spent two millennia without contact with anyone from their home-world and without the sight of an interstellar vessel, they we aware of what an open cargo port meant on a low-altitude ship.

"Vessel appr—Warning! To unidentified vessel: secure all cargo ports or defensive action will be taken!"

"What are they doing?"

"Are they attacking?" Solomon's eyes grew large and he could feel his heart begin to pound heavily in his chest. "Freya, what are they doing?" Instinctively, he pulled his wife to his side, keeping her close.

Freya only shook her head. She knew, if an attack was underway, it was futile to try to take cover. Very soon, they would be overwhelmed by whatever biological fury the pilot had committed to.

Inside the hold, they could see the figure of a man, behind him, a swarm of weapons were deploying around the hold.

"No!" Solomon looked at Freya. "What's happening? Why are they doing this?"

Freya had no answers.

They could see the containers atomising. It wouldn't be long before their long lives would be at an end.

Solomon turned to his wife as the crowd began to scream. As the black clouds swooped down from above, as the defence system fired an ionised blast into the hull of David's ship, Solomon pulled his wife towards him and wrapped his arms around her.

There was a blinding flash above as the ship was hit and sent hurtling towards the side of the mountain.

Over Freya's shoulder, Solomon watched the people he had lived with for thousands of years spend their final moments in agony. Allayah, standing alone, looking around in terror caught his gaze and, as she did so, her eyes reddened and her skin began to tear apart. Those who lived outside the walls of the town, and those who lived in the distant lands of the planet, along with all major lifeforms, would be hunted down by something more grotesque and sinister.

"Close your eyes. This will be over soon." As the words left Solomon's lips, Freya gasped and immediately he felt her skin begin to fracture as the cells in her body broke down. His palms grasped her more powerfully in the vain hope he could reverse the process, but he knew it was useless. As her body fell loosely towards the ground, Solomon felt an intense burning inside his chest from the explosion of a million flames. His only comfort was the knowledge that his remains would fall indistinguishable among those of the woman he had married and that they would spend eternity in this final embrace.


End file.
